Environmental bad boy Chase (Playing God in Yellowstone, 1986,
etc.) takes on biocentrism and the Endangered Species Act in this
delightfully angry if at times snide volume. Pretty much from the
word go, this country's responses to the environmental needs of the
land have been inadequate, suggests Chase, but the currently
voguish notion of "ecosystems" is egregious in the extreme. He
traces the roots of this concept back to its holistic/monistic
source: It reflects the long line of thinking from "Puritans
longing for salvation through intimacy with God in nature" right up
to the preservationists' notion of nature as self-regulator (a
particular bugbear of Chase's). Quaint ideas, scolds the author,
unscientific and full of gaping holes. Nature is everywhere in
flux; our yearning to return to presettlement conditions shows us
up as "self-interested primitivists infatuated with the aesthetic
features of climax communities." Our desire to protect threatened
creatures via the Endangered Species Act is an absurd "mandate to
stop evolution." Nature chooses no favorites, extinctions are
inevitable, so why "set aside for a Disneyesque menagerie of
obscure life forms" entire regions of the US? - particularly in the
Pacific Northwest, where the fight to save old-growth forests
serves as the book's framework. Though diatribe is Chase's forte,
he's willing to put himself on the line with some recommendations
for those involved in the environmental issue: Embrace change, work
in concert rather than as adversaries, remember that humans too are
an element in the landscape (and their works often very pleasing),
and understand that the diversity of landscapes demands differing
environmental strategies to reflect not just the land but the
variegated interests of a heterogeneous society. Not for everyone
this bitter medicine, devoid as it is of mystery and charm, but it
is fascinating reading, impeccably researched, and powerful in that
Chase is clearly a friend of the Earth, not another glad-rider or
apologist. (Kirkus Reviews)
"In a Dark Wood" presents a history of debates among ecologists
over what constitutes good forestry, and a critique of the
ecological reasoning behind contemporary strategies of
preservation, including the Endangered Species Act. Chase argues
that these strategies, in many instances adopted for political,
rather than scientific reasons, fail to promote biological
diversity and may actually harm more creatures than they help. At
the same time, Chase offers examples of conservation strategies
that work, but which are deemed politically incorrect and
ignored.
In a Dark Wood provides the most thoughtful and complete account
yet written of radical environmentalism. And it challenges the
fundamental--but largely unexamined--assumptions of
preservationism, such as those concerning whether there is a
"balance of nature," whether all branches of ecology are really
science, and whether ecosystems exist. In his new introduction,
Chase evaluates the response to his book and reports on recent
developments in environmental science, policy, and politics.
In a Dark Wood was judged by a recent national poll to be one
of the one hundred best nonfiction books written in the English
language during the twentieth century. A smashing good read, this
book will be of interest to environmentalists, ecologists,
philosophers, biologists, and bio-ethicists, and anyone concerned
about ecological issues.
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